It all started when he hit me back…

It’s been an instructive week for the student of socio-economics. Most notably, it’s been established that the provision of passports in non-emergency situations is indispensable to society in a way that healthcare, employment, housing and social welfare seemingly are not. Equally illuminating have been the additions to the bristling arsenal of the big battalions in industrial disputes which have been fashioned in Leinster House. To wit, the following from Mickey Martin:

‘It has brought misery to many Irish citizens who needed passports to travel abroad for business, holidays, or even to find work.’

Yes, really. The Minister for Foreign Affairs actually said the equivalent of “Fancy getting off this godforsaken shithole because my government’s crashed the economy, taken away your job and generally made life intolerable for everyone? Take it up with those bastards in Molesworth Stret!”

However, Eamon “I’m a paid-up trade unionist” Gilmore can trump that. Read it and weep.

Elsewhere, Labour Party leader Eamon Gilmore called for the suspension of industrial action, due to the disruption it was causing individuals.

The sad thing is, that’s more or less what they’ve done. Measures were already in place to provide passports in cases of bereavement and illness. That is absolutely proper, especially in a work-to-rule, and a testament to the humanity of those workers. No-one conducts industrial action in order to take out their misery on the public. But there’s misery, and there’s misery. How many of Joe Duffy’s Sit-In Army got the Thomas Cook treatment?

The whole affair kind of gives the lie to those on the lily-livered liberal wing of the left who called on public sector workers to pick their fights rather than alienating the populace with mass action. They’re picking their fights, and you’re still fucking moaning about it.